The GFA Cup quarter-final between Qala Saints and Victoria Hotspurs was abandoned at half-time after the assistant referee was hit by a cigarette thrown from the stands on Sunday.

Qala Saints and Victoria Hotspurs were going head to head for a place in the sem-finals of the Cup competition at the Kerċem Stadium.

The incident happened five minutes from half-time when assistant referee Patrick Falzon was hit by a cigarette on his neck after it was thrown by a fan from the stands where the Victoria Hotspurs fans sat, forcing the referee Andrea Naudi to suspend the match for three minutes.

Play was restarted and the first half was concluded as scheduled.

However, during the half-time interval, the referee Andrea Naudi and his assistants Max Lee Muscat and Patrick Falzon discussed the incident and the referee decided that they would not continue the match as they deemed there weren’t the safety conditions needed to resume.

Read full story on sport.timesofmalta.com

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